Primary Inspired

One of the first books I read to my class at the beginning of the year is No, David! by David No, David! fits right in!
Shannon. We are a PBIS school & focus on positive...believe it or not,
After reading the book, we talk about being positive...about the problems David had & what we could say to David that he COULD do in our classroom.

Each kiddo writes & illustrates a page for our first class book: Yes, David! It's a great way to kind of peer teach & reinforce expectations: "Yes, David! You can walk in the hallway!" "Yes, David! You can raise your hand when you have a question!" It's always fun to read what they write about!

Just click on the pic to the right to download the writing paper from my dropbox. I hope your kiddos enjoy working on their own class book!

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Have you heard the buzz about Periscope? It has just blown up in the teaching & blogging world world the last few weeks. If you haven't heard, Periscope is an app that streams live video. It's connected to Twitter, so if you're already on Twitter, you'll be able to feed your live video directly through Twitter. You also can broadcast and view live videos just on Periscope. My sweet friends Angie & Ashley have great blog posts about how to get started on Periscope and 25 Periscope Must Knows. Make sure you follow them both...they'll be posting lots more great content & tutorials about the app.

Periscope has proven to be a powerful tool: it's been a terrific way for teachers to connect, collaborate, & network. It's a wonderful way for us to be able to share in real time how to do something, specific tips or ideas. I feel like it's almost a way to get some fantastic PD! Just a few hours ago, Hope King (Elementary Shenanigans) was sharing how she uses music to engage students. In real time, peeps! How cool is that!?

Before we dive into the awesome-ness of using Periscope in the classroom, let's talk about safety & privacy. If you've been on Periscope, you know we've had to block commenters a few times. Yeah...that cannot happen in our classrooms. We can still use the app in the classroom with a few safeguards:

Set up a seperate account just for your classroom

ONLY allow parents to follow

Turn off the location when you broadcast

ONLY allow comments from followers

1. Broadcast Games/Activities from the Classroom
How cool is this? "Today, we're playing a game called Mama Mia. We've been learning about equivalent fractions.....this is a great way for us to practice". Or just record their conversation as they work on a task. Imagine parents being able to take a peek into what their child is doing in the classroom via Periscope! Amazing...right?

2. Broadcast Presentations

A little caveat here -- I am not completely comfortable with kiddos broadcasting their faces....but you can broadcast a lovely presentation just by focusing on the artifacts being used: posters, models, manipulatives, etc. Even without faces, still a powerful way to both let kiddos share their learning & offer parents a glimpse into the classroom!

3. Broadcast Performances

Easy to get around the no faces issue with this one...most performances either require or use MASKS! Boom. Done. And think how dynamic this app is going to be for parents! An easy download on their smart phones & they'll be able to watch readers' theatres and plays right from their phones. Video stays live on Periscope for 24 hours, so parents can view broadcasts as they have time.

4. Create a Gallery

Working on a special art project? Kiddos can set up a gallery & broadcast live. In my classroom, we do lots of 'museum' type projects where kiddos set up displays & we invite other classrooms in. With Periscope, we can also broadcast our museum! Think about the speaking & listening skills we'll be developing & polishing!

5. Virtual Visits

Speaking of museums....how many times have you thought to yourself, "I'd love if my kids could see this?" Maybe you were at an event in your community, or a museum in the next town, or even just speaking to someone who has information you'd love your kiddos to hear. As long as you're going to be with your class in the next 24 hours, you can broadcast your visit or your conversation & then view it with your kiddos. Powerful? Yes!

6. Help with Homework

Record yourself running through an especially difficult problem, or perhaps even just explaining the assignment. Or better yet....have your kiddos record them! Families will be able to access the help over the next 24 hours. (No more "I didn't know what I was supposed to do"). My classroom is about 50% ESL...often, parents aren't able to help with reading the directions. A quick view of the broadcast should be enough for the child to remember what the task is supposed to be.

7. Conduct a Survey

LOVE this real life application for math! You know those assignments in math in which kiddos are supposed to ask others in the classroom their favorite snack or favorite animal? How super awesome would it be to have your kiddos Periscope the survey out? And parents (or even grandparents) can respond?! Wow. I can't even imagine how motivating that would be! They could even broadcast the data after it's all compiled! Personally, I can't wait to do this one!

8. Deliver the News

Got news to share? Event coming up? Need to send out a reminder for something to be turned in? Kiddos can deliver the news! Imagine how excited your kiddos will be to deliver their own newscast?! That's some real world writing application right there, peeps! Not only that....excellent speaking & listening skill building opps, too! (Pssst! Again - this is easy to accomplish without kiddos having to record faces...signs & pics will work perfectly!)

Interested in more ways to use Periscope in the classroom? Make sure you're following me (@fradyb1).....there are more to come!

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Welcome to Chapter 4! Are you loving Daily 5 so far? Ready to give it a try in your classroom, but wondering what you need to get it all started? Well this chapter is for you!

It's surprisingly simple. (I say that because I previously thought I would need to revamp the whole way I was doing things, but that's not so!) Here's what you need:

Quiet Signal - Chimes
In the last chapter, we talked about how a quiet signal is less obtrusive that a loud timer going off, or yelling loudly telling your kiddos it's time to move to the meeting area. Here's another reason for using a quiet signal: let's save our voices for instruction rather than management.

Chart Rack/Interactive Whiteboard
Covered...right? We're going to need a place to create those I-charts of expected behaviors. Done.

Tools, Not Toys
In other words: fidgets. Some kiddos are going to need extra support to build their stamina. That's where the tools, not toys come in. I bet you're already thinking of some of the things you can use for those tools. In fact, I bet you have some in your classroom or even at home:

Sand timers

Pattern blocks

Legos

Stopwatches for older kiddos

I Spy books, or World Record books

Book Boxes
Kiddos are going to need a place to house their books so the books are at their disposal. Each of your kiddos will need her own box. A note about the beginning of the year: take some time before the first day to fill book boxes (or bags) with a variety of books. During that important training time at the beginning, kiddos are going to need enough books to keep them engaged.

A Gathering Place & Focus Lessons
The most important components. You're going to need a space in your room large enough for your entire class to gather on the floor. Not a person who like to teach with your kiddos pulled into a meeting area? There are very good reasons to teach whole group in a meeting area:

takes care of behavior management with proximity

enhance deeper thinking with accountable talk with partners

eliminate distractions (what's in my desk?)

I-Charts
I-Charts are an important part of Teaching & Learning Independence. You know those I-Charts you create when you teach the expectations for each of the tasks? You're going to need to keep those posted in the room. That's something that I need to work hard at. I tend to not want to keep them up all year. But kiddos (& teachers) need to be able to refer to that visible learning. "Disposing of it would [be] throwing away a connection to prior thinking and learning." Yikes! I've really got to fight the urge to take them down & replace with something else. I'll need to think where we can post all of the charts will be making!

Classroom Design
Does my classroom need a special design to be able to do D5? Not really...but there are some things to think about when designing your room. You'll want functional spaces for kiddos to do the work that's part of D5: spaces for Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work. Desks & chairs aren't always the best places to do that work. Do you have spaces planned where kiddos can work on the floor, while standing, comfy chairs or even a love seat? How about area rugs for sprawling? Make certain you are planning different types of work areas for all the important work that's going to be happening in your classroom!

I'd love to help you get started with some of the things you'll be needing to launch D5 in your classroom! How about a fab prize pack filled with goodies?

I always think to myself, "It's too bad Shark Week doesn't happen during the school year." Imagine how engaged kiddos would be during that week.....we could do shark everything! Of course, we won't let the fact that Shark Week happens in the summer stop us from engaging our kiddos with

awesome shark-themed activities, will we?

I've been working on some writing tasks for my kiddos over the summer. One of the skills we really tried to hit hard was citing evidence from the text in written responses. I've discovered that with practice, they were awesome at locating the evidence...but when it came to using that evidence within a written response, that was a different story.

This activity guides my primary kiddos through the process. They highlight evidence, then use that evidence to write a response to a question. I've built in supports with sentence starters so that they can learn/practice the framework of a good response. I'm really excited about the difference this will make for my kiddos written text responses, & I hope you enjoy using this in your classroom, too! Just click the image to grab your copy.

Make sure you click on the button below to head on over to Crayonbox Learning & snag another shark-tastic freebie!